Eastern Conn. nips PSU in LEC Womens Lacrosse semifinal

PLYMOUTH, N.H. – Senior Taylor MacDonald
(Oak Bluffs, Mass.) scored the only goal of overtime with a minute
and a half remaining in the first of two extra sessions and
third-seeded Eastern Connecticut State University pulled off a
dramatic 11-10 victory over second-seeded Plymouth State University
in a thrilling semifinal contest of the 2010 Little East Conference
women’s lacrosse tournament at Arold Field.

MacDonald’s goal in the non-sudden-death overtime period
capped a wild affair that saw Eastern Conn. rally from a three-goal
deficit early in the second half to take a two-goal lead, and
Plymouth State come storming back with two goals in the final two
minutes of regulation, including a tying goal with just 32 seconds
left on the clock, that forced the overtime.

Eastern Conn. (9-9), which defeated Plymouth State 17-10 during the
regular season, will host the LEC championship game on Saturday
against fifth-seeded University of Southern Maine. The
Huskies (10-9) shocked top-seeded Keene State, 10-8, in
Thursday’s other semifinal in Keene, N.H.

The Warriors, who shared the LEC regular season title with Plymouth
State and Keene State, all with 5-1 conference records, will make
their sixth consecutive appearance in the LEC championship
game. Eastern was upset by Keene State in overtime in last
year’s final after the Warriors captured titles in 2005, 2007
and 2008, defeating PS U in 2005 and 2007 and USM in 2008.

Sophomore Ashley Prizio (Brookfield, Conn.) led Eastern with five
goals on the day, while MacDonald finished with a goal and three
assists and a team-high five ground balls. Prizio had scored
a career-high seven goals in the regular season game against PSU.
Senior Katie Beers (Trumbull, Conn.) chipped in with two goals for
the Warriors, and sophomore Megan Barrett (Setauket, N.Y.) anchored
the defense with three caused turnovers and four ground balls.

Sophomore Brianna Davis (Framingham, Mass.) led
the Panther offense with four goals and one assist. She scored her
fourth goal with two minutes left in regulation to cut the deficit
to one goal, and she set up the game-tying goal by sophomore
Jenn Foley (Tewksbury, Mass.) with 32 seconds
left. Senior Kalie Judd (Peabody, Mass.) scored
two goals and one assist while adding five draw controls and three
ground balls. Foley and senior Kerry
D’Ambroise (Lowell, Mass.) also scored twice for the
Panthers.

Eastern scored the first two goals of the game to jump out to an
early lead, but PSU answered with a pair to tie the game at
2-2. Beers and Davis traded goals less than a minute apart to
deadlock the game at 3-3 with 10 minutes left in the half, and
Prizio and Judd exchanged scores 23 seconds apart to make it 4-4
with eight minutes to play. D’Ambroise snuck one in
with less than two minutes to go in the half to give the Panthers a
slim 5-4 margin at the intermission.

PSU started to pull away when Davis and D’Ambroise scored the
first two goals of the second half, but the Warriors were not going
away easily. Prizio notched her third of the game just 21
seconds after PSU had taken a three-goal lead (7-4), and Eastern
tacked on the next four goals, one apiece by freshman Daniela
Marchitto (Orange, Conn.) and senior Brooke Wayte (Bellport, N.Y.)
and two more by Prizio, to give the Warriors a two-goal advantage
(9-7) with 14 minutes to go.

This time it was Plymouth State that wasn’t going down
easily. Judd scored her second of the game with 10 minutes on
the clock to make it 9-8, but junior Ashley Del Vecchio (Farifield,
Conn.) restored Eastern’s two-goal lead (10-8) with 6:48 on
the clock. The Panthers were a determined group and forced
overtime thanks to Davis’ goal with 2:02 remaining and
Foley’s tying goal with 32 seconds on the clock.

Both teams had several chances in both overtime periods but
MacDonald, two-time LEC Defensive Player of the Year, was the only
one to score to win it for the Warriors.

Plymouth State, 10-5, had its six-game winning streak stopped and
will await an ECAC New England Tournament berth when the
announcement is made on Monday.